Moore County mother of 9/11 victim works for peace

Deora Bodley, 20, was on United Flight 93 when passengers fought with terrorists for control of the plane, which crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa.

Deborah Borza remembers heading to a church to pray after a family friend called and told her that Bodley had gotten on the flight as a standby passenger.

"I just asked God where she was, and he said, 'She's with me,' and then my cellphone rang, and it was United Airlines," Borza said Tuesday.

Shortly after 9/11, she said, she came across a journal Bodley had written when she was 11. One entry stated, "People ask who, what, where, when, why, how? I ask peace."

"I guess I just have to be responsible for the fact that I raised an amazing daughter," she said. "She was a very giving young woman."

Borza said she asked God to help her forgive the people responsible for Bodley's death, and she made a decision that would guide the rest of her life.

"I pretty much decided that who I was going to be was going to be courageous and loving," she said.

She has been active with the Flight 93 memorial at Shanksville. She said she wants to organize a motorcycle ride from San Francisco to Shanksville to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

She was working on fundraising for the memorial when she heard the news about the death of bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who planned the 9/11 attacks.

"The news came across, and I said, 'Isn't that odd? I really don't feel much of anything,'" she said. "It gave me the opportunity ... (to) just kind of put a check next to his name, and that aspect was taken care of."

Borza said she's now more determined to continue the work that has helped her move forward for the past decade. She also is in the process of starting a foundation in her daughter's name.

"There is the opportunity for us to create our own situation or create those things that we would like to see happen in the world," she said.